{In My Mailbox} 15

IMM is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at: The Story Siren. You can find official information like how to participate, why it was started and other goodies about IMM on the IMM Page.

 In My Mailbox this week:

Thank you to HarlequinTEEN for providing me with the following titles!

• The Immortal Rules by Juilie Kagawa
• Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen
• The Girl in The Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

What did you receive in your Mailbox this week?

{Review} Torn by Cat Clarke

Release Date: 22 December 2011

Publisher: Quercus

Age Group: Young Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 378

Rating:  5- Wonderful

Four girls. One dead body. A whole lot of guilt. Alice King isn’t expecting the holiday of a lifetime when she sets off with her classmates on a trip to the Scottish wilderness, but she’s not exactly prepared for an experience beyond her darkest nightmares… Alice and her best friend Cass are stuck in a cabin with Polly, the social outcast, and Rae, the moody emo-girl. Then there’s Tara – queen of mean. Powerful, beautiful and cruel, she likes nothing better than putting people down. Cass decides it’s time to teach Tara a lesson she’ll never forget. And so begins a series of events that will change the lives of these girls forever... A compelling story of guilty secrets, troubled friendship and burgeoning love.

 My Thoughts: 

Cat stunned me with her debut, Entangled. She has now easily made herself one of my favourite authors because Torn, literally tore me apart and pulled my heart strings into several directions at once leaving me breathless and shocked.

Torn made me experience a whole range of emotions in which I wanted to cry and also wanted to laugh. One of the things about Cat’s books, is that she always manages to deliver an important message by the end of the book and the book or story she writes, always seems to be just as haunting as the beautiful cover and the title.

Torn, was the story about girls who came from different social circles to tackle the queen of mean. When you find yourself in one of these situations one should always think about their actions. We are all judged according to how we look and no one ever really seems to see past what they see and so they have a very narrow view on what a particular person in a certain group is really like. In Torn, I was able to see what it was like from someone else’s perspective and in turn, how they saw others. Which I found to be incredibly cool!

This story was haunting, emotional and beautiful and I couldn’t help but fall for each and every character no matter how much they hurt someone else or how nice they were because in the end, all of the characters were human and all humans make mistakes...

I would like to thank Cat for being the awesome author that she is, she writes amazing books that haunt me and keep me thinking long after I have read the final page! Everyone, read this book!

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{Review} Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Release Date: 3 January 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Age Group: Young Adult

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 374

Rating:  3- Good

Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered. This was worse. Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland - known as The Death Shop - are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild - a savage - and her only hope of staying alive. A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile - everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

My Thoughts:

Under The Never Sky has a beautiful cover that really makes you want to pick up the book and instantly begin reading it. I can assure you that I found the first few pages extremely interesting and addictive...

That was up until I had no clue as to where the book was going or what all the terminology of this future world, meant. In books, the author can either dump information on us right from the beginning that will explain certain things, yet this may instantly bore the reader, or the author can write the intended story and let the reader figure out what everything in this world is and what exactly it may mean. Rossi decided that she would give the reader a little to think about and I did not think that this what was made the book enjoyable for me.

The concept of this book was incredible and so much for me to immerse myself in. One of the things that made this book extremely enjoyable for me was the fact that Aria, the main character, was a singer! I loved the fact that she was a singer!

This book was extremely hard to get through up until the Death Shop. I don’t know what made me actually continue reading it, it could have been the fact that I wanted to find out exactly what was going on, or maybe it was because I wanted to see if things got a little clearer, but in the end I managed to finish it.

Another interesting thing about this book that instantly got me hooked, was the use of realms! It was interesting to see how the characters reacted, when they all saw a forest for the first time. The names of the characters, as well as the realms, were extremely interesting and made the book enjoyable.

As for Aria—on the cover she appears to be a strong and independent girl who can stand up for what she believes in, and for me; that just did not translate into Aria as a character in the actual text of the book.

Over all, Under The Never Sky was an interesting read that I would recommend to all those readers out there who are fans of Dystopian societies that had a slight sci-fi edge. I look forward to the second book, a Through The Ever Night. 

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{Waiting on Wednesday} 18: Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted over at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney

You can't choose your family ...living or dead. 
Trapped between two very different worlds, newly made vampire Moth is struggling to find her place in either. Not only does she have to answer to her strict Irish-Catholic Dad, but her over-protective maker, Theo, is intent on making her the star attraction in his powerful Boston vampire clan. Moth will have to pull off the double-act of the century to please both of them... 
Adding to her problems is the dangerously attractive Jason Murdoch, a trainee vampire hunter who loves to play cat and mouse in his spare time (Jace = cat; Moth = mouse). But when the teenagers of Boston's wealthiest families start to disappear, it forces Moth and Jace into an uneasy truce. Will they be able to solve the mystery behind the disappearances - before someone winds up undead?

I am so excited to read this book as the cover is so very intriguing and there seems to be so much meaning in the visual and the blurb just sounds so fantastic! I cannot wait to pick up this book!

What are you Waiting on this Wednesday?

Leave a Link and I'll be sure to check out your WoW post!

{Author Interview} Jill Hathaway

Bio: Jill Hathaway lives in the Des Moines area with her husband and young daughter. Having earned her BA in English Education from the University of Northern Iowa and her MA in Literature from Iowa State University, she teaches high school English and dual credit courses for Des Moines Area Community College. 
Contact: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered. Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body. Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane. Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

1) Describe Slide in a single sentence. 

She sees through the eyes of a killer.

2) If you could re-title Slide, what would you call it and why? 

Originally SLIDE was titled OTHER PEOPLE, but I think that title was pretty bad. SLIDE is much better.

3) What gave you the idea to write about a girl who could Slide into other people's bodies in a sense? First I came up with the idea that I wanted my main character to find herself in the head of a killer standing over a dead body. Then I had to figure out how she got there, so I came up with sliding.

4) What inspired you throughout the writing process in order to finish this wonderful debut? I had a great time writing the book. I kept writing because I wanted to find out what happened next!

5) Do you think the cover accurately represents the story you wanted to tell? The cover isn't very literal, but I think it conveys the tone of the story very well.

6) What is the one thing you would say to any aspiring writer right now if the world depended on it? Don't give up! I queried over 100 agents with my first novel, but I kept on writing. When I queried SLIDE, I had tons of interest. Keep writing until you find the right story!

Thank you for stopping by Jill!

{Review} Slide by Jill Hathaway

Release Date: 27 March 2012

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Age Group: Young Adult

Format: eGalley

Pages: 256

Rating:  5- Wonderful

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered. Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body. Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane. 

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

My Thoughts:

 This book was an emotional rollercoaster ride that I didn’t want to get off of no matter how sad I was, because I was also happy at times and I also laughed at a few of the scenes in this book.

I loved this book mainly because it had a contemporary element to it as well as a paranormal aspect in terms of the main character. I also loved the mystery in this book, I do not often read mystery, but found that there was the perfect amount of it in this book to easily please someone who may not necessarily like mystery books. So I really enjoyed the book because it combined elements from different genre’s that I enjoy.

This book had me guessing until I had read the final word as well as after! Hathaway’s writing is simple and intriguing to me and so addictive in the sense that she kept throwing curveballs and the secrets kept unravelling at the perfect pace to keep one entertained.

The characters were all awesome and I felt like I could relate to them all in one way or another. The main character, Vee was interesting and it was extremely addictive to read her story.

I am extremely anxious to read more from Jill Hathaway as she blew me away with her debut, SLIDE. Great job, Jill!

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

| Amazon |

{In My Mailbox} 14

IMM is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at: The Story Siren. You can find official information like how to participate, why it was started and other goodies about IMM on the IMM Page.

 In My Mailbox this week:

(Thanks to Netgalley and the respective publishers for providing these eGalleys)

• The Stone Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
• Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear
• The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda
• Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

What did you receive in your Mailbox this week?